Komodo island

Finally I cross this off my bucket list.

I get to see Komodo dragons in the wild.

I dont know why I want to do this, Im not a lizard or snake person at all. But something about these dinosaur like creatures has always captured my imagination.

We Anchor away from Komodo Island and tender to the little wooden jetty on the island.

Rather than a ships Shore-Ex I have arranged a private tour for a group of us with a local guy Jeffry.

I must say I am nervous, not about the dragons but that Jeffry is there and the tour works out. Sometimetimes you do worry about thing booked sight-unseen over the net.

WE get off the tender and all start laughing, there is Jeffry and his staff holding a huge sign with my full name on it. I guess he is here then.. HAA haa .

He takes any bags with snorkelling gear, towls etc and puts them safely away so we dont have to hike with them.

Introductions to his staff, the ranger etc, instuctions and safety warnings and we are off.

Komodo have a great sence of smell and can smell blood for 10 km, so none is allowed on island with an open cut, or women with their perioids.  

EVERYONE has to stay close to the rangers!

Out of the 4,000 komodos left in the wild, almost 4/5 of them reside on Komodo island.

The ranger station is the landing point to start the walking trails on Komodo island to see komodo dragons. Park rangers always carry a Y-shaped wooden stick use to fend off aggressive komodos. (yep just a stick, to fend off things they make documentaries about called DEADLY 60 etc)

Komodo National Park is located just below the equator.  is is very hot there when it isnt raining

First we see deer, I was quite surprised to see a few wild deer. Komodo’s favourite food is deer.

Then we spotted a Komodo, is blends in with fallen trees and leaf litter that you could have almost walked on him without noticing, the ranger said that is one way they get food, it comes to them so they dont have to spend so much energy chasing it.

We relcutantly walked away after 5 minutes in search of "bigger, better" dragons  and sure enough 10 munites later there were two huge ones walking through the bushes.

We were standing around, watching the komodos moving around us and taking photos of these mean-looking reptiles.

I laid on the ground to get a close-up photo at his height and the ranger grabbed me and said get up slowly, its looking at you flicking its tongue, it senses food.

Suddenly the komodo moved towards us and the ranger put his forked stick out to protect us (gee a forked tree stick, how effective)  We all had to move away a at rate.! I felt a sense of relief I wasn’t on the ground, but I maintained my ‘composure’

Komodo can run as fast as 20km/h.

After another hour and half, we saw more dragons than we expected, saw their nest in the riverbanks, skulls from previous kills.

WE headed back to the ranger station and jetty. We ran the gauntlet of the tourist market, where I bought some fabulous carved komodos for everyone back home. You have to barter  but the products so unique that it is worth it.

Komodo island is all about the mean, ferocious dragons that spurt no fire,  but a short boat ride away lies the Pink Sand Beach.

The Pink Beach is so famous it’s a must-visit for Komodo National Park visitors. Even my Indonesian friends who dive all over Indonesia agree that their best snorkelling experience is at the Pink Beach.

Its called Pink Sand Beach, because the sand is pink,.. it comes from the crushed up local red coral that gives the sand its pink or red tones.

I had to have some for my daughters unique sand and and rock collection.

WE hopped on Jeffry's boat and motored out for half an hour to PINK Sand beach.

 The boat stopped about 75mtr from the beach and Jeffry says go ahead its fine. Everyone is tentative but I have already grabbed my snorkel gear and I jump straight in, it is so refreshing after the heat of hiking.

Soon most of the others joined me in the water, except one who forgot bathing suit!!, and one who couldnt swim well and was to nervous.

The water is crystal clear and teeming with sealife, beautiful corals. We swim for around 2 hours and are so reluctant to leave.

A rich diversity of healthy-looking, colourful corals and fish are found so close to the shore of the Pink Beach, we can snorkel near the beach to explore the stunning underwater world. Just be careful not to step on the coral! We had flippers or reef shoes on but stepping on coral damages the coral (far more important)

Less than 50 metres from the Pink Beach, it’s a dive site. Komodo National Park is home to 38 dive sites, some of the top dive sites in the world. The marine environment is home to manta rays, different species of dolphins, dugongs, sea turtles, some 260 species of reef-building coral and over 1,000 species of fish.

On the way back as we were eating our beautiful lunch supplied by Jeffry and his staff, rice, fish, chicken, vegetables, fruit, cold drinks. We saw something in the water in a bay, it was full of Giant manta rays, the boat in close to them and one of the crew jumped off the boat to swim with them carrying my underwater camera, he got a few good pictures for me.

Then we returned to the jetty to catch the tender back to the ship.

Everyone said it was one of the best days they have had. I agree. A superb day.